Nerd Wars - Tournament 1 Round 2

And so the 2nd round of Nerd Wars began this morning. I'm gonna try really hard this round to use projects I need to get done as part of it. Below are the challenges. I have ideas for the Intellectual, Team Spirit and Scientific. I'm just running them past one of the mods before I start to see if they would qualify. Squee, the excitement. I finished the 1st month with a respectable 2.5 points. Considering I've never really done anything to a deadline like this I'm quite proud.

Challenge (Intellectual): WARRIOR'S FRIEND
Craft a shield. Spinners, find a picture of a shield (historical or fictitious) and make something reminiscent of its colours. Or, if you can think of another answer to this riddle, craft that. Make sure to explain what your answer is and why you chose it.
Craft something that will protect you from something unpleasant or undesirable.
Craft something that will protect an object that is important to you from something unpleasant or undesirable.

Challenge (Team Spirit): IN LIKE A LION, OUT LIKE A LAMB
If you haven’t heard, March is the month that comes in like a lion (blustery, cold, and harsh) and goes out like a lamb (mild and temperate). This month’s challenge pays homage to that saying.

The Challenge: Create something inspired by this saying.

* Make something inspired by an animal or animal-like being. Werewolves need love too, you know!
* For those without animals in their nerddom, play off the hard and soft duality of the saying. Perhaps that gruff space pilot has a soft and gentle heart?

Challenge (Nerd Culture): DON’T HIDE YOUR LIGHT UNDER A BUSHEL!
Your challenge this month is to spark wonder in your home towns and cities by performing your art in public. You may choose to submit photographic or video evidence of yourself knitting, crocheting, spinning, or weaving in public (from either a third- or first-person view, if you’re camera-shy), or by summoning a minor Yarnstorm of your own. Knit colorful flowers to stand by the side of the road until their organic counterparts take over. Crochet that One Tree on campus a sweater. Fill those who view your art with wonder, and help spread your nerdery to a new audience!

Challenge (Giving Geeks): WIP HELP
Some projects take what seems like forever, even if they are small. My friend’s mother had a pair of thumbless mittens sitting on top of her knitting basket for years, and now she is so shaky with her ailments she cannot do the simple task of finishing the thumbs. It took a gentle touch to get her to allow my friend to take the mittens and finish them up.

Your challenge is to finish a WIP for someone who can no longer do it themselves, from age, injury, or illness. The person does not need to be elderly - it can be a peer who has broken a hand, but needs to finish the WIP on a deadline. The size of the WIP is unimportant - what is important is helping someone finish a project.

This challenge is not for completing your own WIPs.

Challenge (Scientific): CAPILLARY ACTION
Capillary action is responsible for moving groundwater from wet areas of the soil to dry areas, creating that pesky meniscus when measuring liquids for cooking or science projects, and what Bounty tries to maximize to be the quicker picker upper. It is the ability of liquid to flow against gravity. It is one of the qualities that makes water a unique compound.

In this challenge, you must find inspiration in capillary action. Whether it is from capillary action in nature, kitchen, or otherwise.

Challenge (Technical): POLYTECHS
A polyglot is someone who is able to speak or write in several languages. It comes from Greek, meaning many tongues.

A polytech (made up by me from Greek meaning many techniques or arts) is someone who is able to craft using many techniques (spinning, knitting, crochet, quilting, needle felting, tatting, etc.). Your challenge this month is to demonstrate your proficiency in multiple techniques by combining two or more to produce a single finished object. One of the techniques must be from the Rav-sanctioned four (spinning, knitting, crochet, weaving), but the other technique(s) can be any craft of your choosing.

Nebulous - complete

Here is my latest submission to Nerd Wars. Here is the gorgeous Blue Face Leicester fibre that I bought myself for my birthday. I've been really wary of spinning it as it is so pretty. I didn't want to mess it up. But I took the bull by the horns for the honour of Ninjas! This was my interpretation of the Orion Nebula which is my favourite.




I'm finally starting to get the hang of this whole spinning thing. I managed to get 166 yards out of this 100g of fibre. It's fairly fine (I've not checked the wraps per inch yet) and is pretty even. I really do love spinning.

Nebulous

Challenge (Scientific): NEBULAS
Your challenge is to demonstrate a nebula in a project. For example, you could spin yarn reminiscent of a nebula or create a project that depicts a famous nebula.


Now this seems like a perfect excuse to spin the pretty fibre I got for my birthday.



Gorgeous isn't it?

It reminds me of my favourite nebula, the Orion Nebula. Mostly the bottom left corner. So if I spin this up well I will have Orion Nebula yarn. I think this will fit in with the challenge. This should also be easily doable in the time scale.

Nerd Wars

Hello my name is Affi'enia and I am a nerd. Wow that was kinda liberating. I've never really thought of myself as a nerd but my obsessive nature does lend itself to nerddom. I have decided to harness that power and use it to further my projects this year. I can be awfully lazy and need a lot of motivation. So with this in mind I have signed myself up to Nerd Ward on Ravelry.

This is the basic premise. Everyone is in a team based on their shared nerdy favourite. There is a lord of the rings one, a vampire one, a Pratchett one etc. The tournament lasts 3 months and each month there are 6 challenges, one in each category. You must try and complete one item for as many of the challenges as you can in the month. Points are awarded for completed items and less points for half completed. If you manage to embody the spirit of your team in each project you will get more points. The team with the most points at the end of the tournament wins.

Now I actually missed the sign up date for this tournament but there is a Ninja category where you can play along for the glory. Points will be awarded but there is obviously no team glory. I intend to play along this time and am in the process of gathering a team for the next round. Our chosen Nerd topic? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oh yes my friends I am a closet BtVS fan. I loved the series when it was first on and watched all of them bar the last series. It just sort of fell off my radar. I had a hankering a few months back to catch the last series as I really wanted to see the ones with Nathan Fillion. So I bought the whole 7 series with some of my birthday money. So far we are up to Season 3. Loving it!

Ok so February's challenges are as follows:

Challenge (Intellectual): PRIME NUMBERS
Your challenge is to demonstrate prime numbers in a project. For example, it could be a prime number of yards (be prepared to show your work on how this was determined), a prime number of colors, or shapes that have a prime number of corners (triangles, pentagons, etc.). These are examples only - think creatively!
Challenge (Team Spirit): VALENTINE'S DAY
Your challenge this round is to craft an item for that very special character in your nerddom. Maybe your beloved Night Elf gets cold on those cold nights battling the Horde. Make them a shawl! Perhaps that adorable pair of practical jokesters would love a skein of handspun yarn in their house colors? Even the coldest of the undead would appreciate a good pair of socks, right?
Challenge (Technical): A BONDING EXPERIENCE
Your challenge is to demonstrate the fiber equivalent of ionic bonding, using different types of fiber. Working with different fibers generally requires different techniques or tools to produce a finished object with the hoped-for properties. Therefore, in addition to presenting your finished object, you should discuss the technical aspect (fiber preparation, needle choice, etc.) of working with different fibers. Pre-blended fibers/yarns count as polyatomic ions and therefore can be one half of the ionic bond.
Challenge (Scientific): NEBULAS
Your challenge is to demonstrate a nebula in a project. For example, you could spin yarn reminiscent of a nebula or create a project that depicts a famous nebula.
Challenge (Giving Geeks): COLD HANDS, WARM HEARTS
Your challenge is to donate mittens to a program local to you, or giving them directly to someone in need.
Challenge (Nerd Culture): NERDWARSCON
Your challenge is to craft something that can be found at a convention (could be a specific one, or conventions in general) or craft something that would useful at a convention (like a bag to put all your free stuff in).

Now the hard part begins. Thinking of projects for each that I stand a chance of finishing before the end of Feb without ignoring everything else I am doing. Hmm....

The moose and my first handspun

Finally I have pictures of the Moose for you. This is Bob.

He's not quite as good as Geldoff as far as I'm concerned but considering how rushed I ended up being I'm quite pleased with him. Spadgersdottier squealed when she opened him so that made me happy :o)

The next fibre based offering for you is my first handspun yarn. I got my wheel in October and I have been practicing by plying lots of scraps of wool together. I finally broke out the raw fibre and spun one bobbin of Jacob and one of English. I then plied those together. It's uneven and fairly ugly but I love it. I've learnt so much already and can't wait to get more fibre.